Autism & Teaching

Greetings MAP - I come to you once again for help!

It's been a very long time since I've been here, years even - From that point I've developed from a teenage martial arts enthusiast whom helped part time around the dojo in a full fledge black belt instructor - My experience puts me at roughly 3 years of assisting with classes on top of 3 years of teaching my own classes as well as coming up on 6 months of running a 5-6 year old program!

Some background:

I consider myself a well adaptable person and have seen my share of children with disabilities that I've been able to help them and their families cope with usually with great success, however, today I was thrown completely off guard.

I was approached to do a 30m private lesson with 2 autistic teenagers about a week ago and just today was my first lesson. These boys, however were obviously not in the usual Mid-High functioning class of autism that I'm familiar with.

Neither of the boys speak, and one just so happens to be deaf - They each seem to have pretty heavy ticks from running around and curling up to violently shaking, however, when I focus myself to one either one in particular I can usually get them to copy my motions pretty accurately.

This of course leads me to believe that with a large amount of time and patience (of which I have both) that there is some good these boys and their father can get out of attending weekly privates with me, as opposed to throwing them out to the cold like the last school they attempted presumably had done. . . I see this as both a great oppertunity for myself as well as for this family and intend to do a large amount of research in order to better prepare myself for the weeks to come.

However; Like I said. .While I do have experience with autistic children in my classes (and have seen amazingly large improvements in all of them) and while my dojo is comfortably equipped to provide for these boys I unfortunately do not have experience with Low Functioning autistics.

My question(s) falls out to anybody with experience:

1) What types of activities AND teaching methods would you recommend to be the most successful in this situation?

2) (Shotokan school) - Aside from the extreme basics of standing still, staying calm, etc - -What types of techniques in your experience have been good to concentrate on?. . .I spent the day working on just punching as I figured it was the most basic of actual skills.

3) Any recommended websites/books on both teaching children with severe autism as well as just understanding the disability (trying to stay clear of things like wikipedia).

4) Any other helpful hints that may be useful


As always - Thank you MAP community, always around when something is needed!

 

teaching martial arts to low functioning autistics? you are a brave man. props.

i would have focused on ukemi and movement, myself. building from the ground up.

 

Halfway through the lesson I had decided I would tell the father that his boys would not be capable of learning much of anything in karate but towards the end when I noticed that when 100% of my focus was on one boy he would function fairly adequately my position changed. . .With the help of another instructor, or even just the father coming in and mimicking what I do with his attention on the other boy I feel like some good can be had, especially in such a supportive environment.

Well I have to say I was caught off guard today, which rarely happens, as I was given zero background on these boys - And as all of my experience with teaching autistic children has been children whom are just as capable as any other child but with quirks and issues that need to be addressed.

However, the goal of the day was an obvious evaluation so I did my best to run through several types of core skills.

I spent the majority of the lesson doing some basic stretching (touching your toes), having the boys stand on a particular spot in the room as well as making a fist and throwing a punch (or really, just moving your hand out in a straight line) -

In a day and age where there are so many outlets for therapy and with most parents not understanding that the core skills of karate extend beyond the physical its hard not to introduce some kind of technique.

 

I'll look around and see if I can find some resources for you. My son is autistic (high-functioning), and I really respect and appreciate what you're doing.

 

Mitlov; thank you so much it would be greatly appreciated!


I had another private with these boys today using a fellow instructor to help me keep the ratio 1v1 - While it seems the first few minutes are the hardest, getting them to hold at a centralized spot in the room it only goes up from there! These are great boys and I can't wait to see how they progress over the coming weeks/months!

 

I found some other instructors who have martial arts programs geared toward children on the autism spectrum. They might have some experiences to share, what has worked for them and what's proven counterproductive, etc. I'd recommend getting in touch with some of the instructors at the programs listed below and seeing if any of them would want to engage in such a dialogue.

A BJJ school that teaches an autism-oriented program out of a local Boys and Girls Club in Dudley, Massachusetts: http://www.mma4a.org/index.html

A program out of Gaithersburg, Maryland, that teaches TKD, kickboxing, and BJJ and has a "No Limits" program oriented for special needs kids (including kids on the spectrum): http://www.cima-studios.com/ ; http://www.gazette.net/stories/012308/germnew52158_32363.shtml

A TKD program out of Roy, Utah tailored for kids on the spectrum: http://eriksmartialarts.com/

On a less serious note:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwg-w1_glT0"]YouTube- Chocolate Movie Trailer - Trailer - IGN Video[/ame]

 

Mitlov, again thank you - I'm going to shoot out some e-mails to those programs and see if anybody can help me in that regard.

Simon, I'd be more than happy to track these boys progress!